Monday Briefing: Ark Multimedia Publishing

Electronic Ministering

Williamsburg Firm Reaches Kids Through `Wholesome' Software

March 01, 1993|By JOANN FROHMAN Daily Press

WILLIAMSBURG — Jose Morelos' story, as he tells it, is not unlike the makings of a complex computer game: teen-age revolutionary escapes death in the jungles of South America, winds up cleaning toilets in a New York subway and finds Jesus in a New Jersey Baptist church.

But it gets better: The 38-year-old Colombian native now spends his time running a 6-month-old software company in Williamsburg, which specializes in Christian computer programs like Bible story adventure games and educational programs for children.

Ark Multimedia Publishing is more likely to stick to stories like the one about Onesimus, the biblical slave who escaped from the notorious Philemon only to run into the Apostle Paul in Rome and become a Christian.

Morelos, founder of the company, said the idea behind Ark Multimedia is to offer ``wholesome, family-oriented'' computer products that contain no violence or sexual innuendo. Not for him are games like Leisure Suit Larry, where the protagonist tries to pick up buxom women.

His goal, he said, is to make his company name synonymous with family entertainment, similar to the way Disney cut out its movie niche. At the same time, he said he wants to witness his Christianity to others through electronic publishing.

Having just acquired a national contract to market his products in Wal-Mart stores, Morelos believes he's well on the way to attaining his dream of electronic ministering.

Wal-Mart agreed to buy 4,000 computer programs from Ark for distribution in 200 stores in the U.S., Morelos said. Sales of those programs will determine whether the giant retailer places another order, he said.

But Morelos said early indications point to success. He said he started getting return registration cards from his Wal-Mart programs less than seven days after the games hit the shelves. Each packaged program contains a registration card that buyers are urged to fill out and return to the publisher.

With names like Chronicle of the Beginning Time, Bible Paint and Learn and Journey to the Promised Land, Ark's first five software packages are definitely Christian-oriented, Morelos said. Most of them sell for under $30.

Beginning next month, the company will publish five new secular programs, most of them educational games for children and adults.

``Even though these new programs won't be theology-based, they'll still be based on the traditional family values that many people want,'' Morelos said.

Ark is currently producing about 500 software packages a week, although the company managed to put out 4,000 units for Wal-Mart in 10 days.

Programming the floppy disks is done by Morelos and his staff of three others in Williamsburg, and by Ark's technical support staffer in Dallas. A California company duplicates the disks and the programs are packaged and shipped at the Sarah Bonwell Hudgins Regional Center in Hampton. The center provides work for mentally retarded people.

The Wal-Mart sale represents a change in marketing strategy for the fledgling software company, which initially sold its product in Christian bookstores.

``Bookstores are an immature channel,'' Morelos said. ``They know how to sell books, they don't know how to sell software.

So Ark has begun pushing its product in the secular markets, like Wal-Mart and Walden Soft, the electronic spin-off of WaldenBooks, he said. Negotiations with other major retailers are also under way, he said.

Morelos' company is not the only entry in the religious software business. But most Christian programming centers around computerized sermons, church administration and financial programs and Bible study programs, according to Steve Hewitt, editor of Christian Computing magazine.

But Morelos doesn't fear competition from larger, more established software companies.

``Any competition at this point will just legitimize the market and that can only help us,'' he said. ``A rising tide lifts all boats.''

``The market is too big for us to get squeezed out,'' said Nelson Brugh, who came to Ark in January from nVIEW Corp. to handle marketing. ``Whoever comes into the market, we will be right beside them, and they won't be able to beat our quality and our price.''

AT A GLANCE

* What: Ark Multimedia Publishing

* President: Jose Morelos, a former Marxist from Colombia

* Where: 1318 Jamestown Road, Williamsburg

* Phone: 220-4722

* Products: Bible Paint & Learn, Chronicle of the Beginning Time, Journey to the Promised Land, Onesimus and Quest for the Scroll Scholar